WASHINGTON – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee urged Republicans to stop attacking each other and instead focus on defeating the Democrats in the upcoming elections.

In a luncheon speech Thursday at the Republican National Committee winter meeting in Washington, Huckabee criticized Democrats for portraying women as “helpless” individuals whose only goal in life is for the government to provide for them birth control.

“If the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it,” he said. “Let us take that discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be.”

White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked about Huckabee’s comments and whether that indeed is the president’s message. “I haven’t seen that report, but whoever said it, sounds offensive to me and to women,” Carney said.

Huckabee also made some comments in reference to the ongoing political battles over reproductive rights in which the Democrats have consistently called the Republican Party’s position a “war on women.”

“Republicans no longer accept listening to Democrats talk about a ‘war on women,’” he said. “Republicans don’t have a war on women. [We] have a war for women – for them to be empowered to be something other than victims of their gender.”

Huckabee, a onetime pastor and current Fox News talk show host, urged the GOP to be more aggressive on income inequality and said Republicans should get involved in the debate about poverty and other issues that some conservatives think the GOP should shy away from.

“Let’s talk about the fact that the party that has preached poverty and how to fix it has led this country to spend $20.7 trillion in current dollars since 1964…and today more people are impoverished than when we started the war on poverty,” he said.

Huckabee said poverty cannot be eradicated until you bring to people a sense of “hope and optimism.”

“Real hope and optimism comes when people can get an education and get a job, and going beyond the life the government wants them to live,” he said.

He said the Republican Party should strive to build a country based on the notion that people willing to work hard will be able to get ahead.

Huckabee also sent a message to conservative groups who are supporting efforts to defeat elected Republicans.

He said the GOP is poised to increase its numbers in the House and the Senate, but only if Republicans can stop attacking each other.

“The only thing that would keep us from seeing that happening is if we’d decide that we’d rather fight each other than to fight for the people of this country that deserve a different and better kind of government than what Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi have given them,” Huckabee said.

He also dismissed the term “RINO,” which stands for “Republican In Name Only.”

“Let’s stop calling each other somehow less Republican than someone else,” he said.

Huckabee has criticized Tea Party activists and other conservative groups for attacking other Republicans as RINOs to suggest they are not committed to conservative principles.

He said the differences between Republicans are “minute” compared to those they have with Democrats.

“If you are with me 90, 80, even 70 percent of the time, you’re still 70 percent closer to me than I am to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama,” he said.

Before delivering his speech, Huckabee spoke to reporters about his possible campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

Huckabee, the runner-up in the 2008 GOP presidential primary, said he has received more calls to run in 2016 than he received in 2012 when he decided not to run because of personal reasons.

“The encouragement has been much stronger than I would have anticipated,” he said.

“If you are with me 90, 80, even 70 percent of the time, you’re still 70 percent closer to me than I am to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama,” he said.

That's the lie of it, isn't it? Men like Huckabee, Boehner, Blunt, Rubio, McCain, Graham - these guys aren't with me 60, 50, or even 40 percent of the time.

These men have called me a "radical", a "terrorist", and a "kidnapper". MY OWN PARTY LEADERS call me those names. I voted for Roy Blunt, and the man was recently on 97.1 TALK radio calling me a "hostage taker".

N-E-V-E-R-A-G-A-I-N. Hey, statist Huckabee. "RINO" isn't an offense for which you should be prosecuted and jailed. "Terrorist", "kidnapper", and "hostage taker" are terms that get people arrested and jailed, you freaking a-hole! Screw you and all the other so-called moderates and centrists in the Republican Party.

Yes. I plan on not using the term RINO just as soon as the RINOs start aiming their fire at the leftists instead of the Tea Party.

And as far as Huckabee's comments about the democrat's war on women, it just goes to show that even the most liberal Republican is better than any Democrat. That's not the issue. The issue is that RINOs are experts at losing big elections, and experts at blaming that on their largest and most rational voting bloc.

Huckabee is right. And unless I’ve missed something (entirely possible), he’s the first guy to come out and blast the Dems for their idiotic invention known as the “Republican war on women,” which most (?) thinking people understand has nothing to do with reality. But then the Democrats are the party that has also given us Obamacare, so what should we expect? As for the Tea Party v RINO fight, the Governor is also correct. Republicans would do well to remember that people whose specialty is circular firing squads are not likely to be seen as a good bet to lead the country.

Huckabee IS a RINO. That's why he wants everyone to shut up. He's been pro-amnesty since before pro-amnesty was cool in the gop. Why, he's an amnesty pioneer! He was soft on crime as a gov, and now he's blabbering about "income inequality"??? That's a marxist democrat concept made to order!! What a statist d-bag conservative wannabe....

“If you are with me 90, 80, even 70 percent of the time, you’re still 70 percent closer to me than I am to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama,” he said.

That's the lie of it, isn't it? Men like Huckabee, Boehner, Blunt, Rubio, McCain, Graham - these guys aren't with me 60, 50, or even 40 percent of the time.

These men have called me a "radical", a "terrorist", and a "kidnapper". MY OWN PARTY LEADERS call me those names. I voted for Roy Blunt, and the man was recently on 97.1 TALK radio calling me a "hostage taker".

N-E-V-E-R-A-G-A-I-N. Hey, statist Huckabee. "RINO" isn't an offense for which you should be prosecuted and jailed. "Terrorist", "kidnapper", and "hostage taker" are terms that get people arrested and jailed, you freaking a-hole! Screw you and all the other so-called moderates and centrists in the Republican Party.

Just read the collection of comments in your account. Going out on a limb here, with all your negative reactions to labels except one. Going out on a limb here, are you a U.S. Constitutionalist? My moniker PicoFF is a combination of an old work related nickname. When it came to creating a moniker on another website, I thought long and hard and came up with 'FF' which stands for Founding Fathers. I had a hard time initially following your comments, especially without the comments to which you were responding, until, by process of elimination, I arrived at Constitutionalist. Rereading all of your comments then made perfect sense. I walk with you but I encourage (probably not needed based on your comment collection) your guidance regarding any errors you see in my comments.

I wouldn't mind living in a country where being a Progressive (or one of their useful idiots) was a federal offense with treason and execution as penalties. Then I wake up and the Progressives are still steadily nibbling away at our individual rights and freedoms.

Indeed, RINOs should be pointed out as being the weak wall of the GOP. The Progressive attack against America has always been to nibble away at individual rights and RINOs are their useful idiots. Without RINOs, Progressives would be stopped cold in their efforts.

Also respectfully, I disagree that RINOs are Progressives. They think they are separate and, therefore as Stalin said, are "useful idiots". We're arguing fine points here, and in the final analysis, it amounts in the same result. The Progressive team has been succeeding for the last 100 years in nibbling at our U.S. Citizen's Individual Rights.

Primarying incumbents is a GOOD thing for the Party and the country. Party discipline should be enforced - if those who lose primaries don't support the GOP victor in the general, kick them out forever.

The 'No RINO' message would go down so much better if it came from Rand Paul - or some other new millennium conservative. No disrespect to the Governor but, his rhetoric left much to be desired (awkward) and won't play with the kids in Peoria or the rest of the country for that matter.